TELEVISION POLL

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

I've learned a lot from food network.
How it's made is pretty interesting as well as myth busters.
history channel has some good documentaries on every once in a while.


it's good background noise.

[Iason Ouabache]

I watch more stuff online than on the boob tube. I seem to watch a bunch of Fox shows on Hulu: House, Lie to Me, Family Guy, American Dad, Sit Down Shut Up. The only stuff I actually watch on tv anymore is football and Good Eats.

[The Johnny]

See, i think implicitly in this forum's discourse its expressed that TV sucks, but at the same time i don't think it's mentioned explicitly but on rare occasions.

I think TV is one of the greater evils nowadays, because many things are consecuenses of it.

Like i dont know, if one didnt have an easy and efficient way of tuning-out of reality they even would have to think even if they didnt like to do it.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

I don't think tv sucks. I think certain channels and a lot of shows suck, but there's a lot of crap on tv that's pretty good.
Advertisements suck and I hate those but who doesn't.

[Corvidia]

I don't think tv sucks. I think certain channels and a lot of shows suck, but there's a lot of crap on tv that's pretty good.
Advertisements suck and I hate those but who doesn't.

Ben Mack. For him, it's  every time a new product appears on his screen.

But you're right, there's some great stuff out there. PBS was what I watched as a kid (plus The Simpsons) and they've still got awesome stuff.

Also, two words: SHARK WEEK. I loved that and I almost miss cable for it.

And I enjoy Keith Olbermann and Colbert and Stewart. None of whom suck imo. And on one of my local channels, Alfred Hitchcock Presents is shown at ten pm weeknights which I enjoy immensely. Glee, House, and Pushing Daisies (is that even still on?) are/were great.

I like TV well enough, but again, I have the internet.

[The Johnny]

In regards to some certain television series...

I'd rather rent or buy the DVD's for the seasons, etc.

Yes, the advertisements are major part in my opinion.

But i guess certain programs wont ever be released in DVD...

[Triple Zero]

If there's something I am interested in watching, I'll download it but there hasn't been much in a while. I can't stand advertising and how it breaks up the shows. You really notice them when you haven't been exposed to them in a while.

That being said the smug sense of unwarranted self importance some people get from saying "I don't watch tv" has become so irritating that its almost embarrassing to say anything similar.

I'm not a big fan of smug unwarranted self importance, but in the case of not watching TV I'll gladly make an exception and prefer if people around me didnt watch TV and were smug about it.

Except they aren't. A few of them don't watch but they arent being smug about it. Compared to a couple of years ago, I do get the impression that "funny/cool commercials" are less part of the discourse now than they were, for which I am grateful.

Speaking of smugness, there's some people that think they're pretty smart and decided they need TV to "keep up". And whenever some part of the news is being discussed and I ask them a question, "what exactly is X, who is Y, did he say why he said Z, etc", they are all like "see and that's why you should watch TV".
regardless of the fact that they don't really know what X is apart from a word they used on the news, Y is some unimportant tabloid "celebrity" and of course the news didn't cover the motivations behind statement Z and they surely never gave it a second thought (no really, why does Geert Wilders want to tax head scarfs?)

That's a kind of smugness that annoys me. I mean sure I understand why, of course it's tiring for them that when they talk about some dutch criminal kid that drugged and killed some blonde american girl on some far away island beach that really nobody would give a fuck about (except direct relations and authorities) if it weren't for the media beaming all that shit into the collective discourse, that they cannot start right away re-re-re-retelling the latest tidbit of information the media has fed them and happily speculating on whatever, but yes, no, you shall have to re-tell the last couple of chapters of the story to me, because, yes I know the story, but I haven't followed it that close, and oh yeah, we're both real people and when you sum it up like that you suddenly feel pretty stupid because normal people usually don't insult eachother's intelligence with empty stories like the TV does.

That said, the Internet also poses some problems for me. See I agree with JohnnyX that, from all the things you can do while "doing nothing", watching TV is probably the worst. I'm not sure about background, I know I couldn't stand it, but just giving that box 10-15 minutes of your attention puts you in a trance like, very toxic state.

But the Internet, it's different and it's the same. You have to actively choose what channels you want to watch, otherwise Squid would probably be all over Google Video, since it doesn't have good documentaries "some of the time", but really whenever you want one.

But the Internet, it's giving me information overload. Took me too long to realize it, but reading shit on the Internet is addictive as fuck, and if you don't control yourself you go on an information binge, lose a couple of hours and the worst part, see I gotta admit, watching TV is somewhat relaxing, even if you watch Fox News, after a while you get this trancelike state and your brain switches down a gear and relaxes. But not so on the Internet, my brain speeds up, and when finally after a few hours of guzzling information, I manage to pull myself loose from that sticky screen, sometimes I actually have to close my laptop screen to break the spell, it's really like a spell, also a trance, but a different one, because afterwards I feel all washed out, tired. That wasn't that way with the TV. You just watched and after a while you notice nothing's on and you get fed up with the crap and switch it off but at least your head is not spinning and you go do something else. Anyone else have this? I noticed some people talk about tvtropes in that way, but I also have it when reading up on this forum, how do you deal with it?

[Iason Ouabache]

Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28694

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I couldn't afford cable about ten years ago so I stopped watching TV. Broadcast reception was shitty so I didn't bother trying. I used to like a lot of stuff, like on Discovery or whatever. But I don't really miss it; instead I spend too many hours on Internet. Now I live closer to city center so I could probably get reception but my TV is too old and doesn't have an HDTV receiver, and I don't care enough to get a converter box. I do watch TV if I go to someone's house and it's a shared thing, but it's hard for me to sit down by myself and do it because I get bored/distracted.

[Cain]

I watch maybe five hours a week.  A few series I have stuck with for a while (Lost, Fringe, House) and a couple of in depth TV news programs, like Newsnight.  I occasionally download a program based on suggestions by others (TV Tropes's forum normally has a few) but otherwise, I'm OK.

[LMNO]

Mrs LMNO enjoys watching TV, often using it as background ambience.  I watch with her.  Usually, the TV is on between 6 pm and 10pm. On weekends, it could be on more or less every time we are awake and in the house. 

To be fair, it rarely if ever is network TV (CBS, NBC, CBS, Fox).

As you might notice, this level of TV has not diminished my ability to produce quality creative work.

[AFK]

My wife and I usually only have the TV on between when Portia goes to bed, and we go to bed, which is an hour and a half to 2 hours.  Usually the 8 O'Clock hour is Countdown, unless Keith is on vacation because frankly, all of his fill-ins suck.  9 O'Clock varies.  Monday we watch the Chuck Lorre shows in CBS (2 1/2 men, Big Bang Theory), Tuesdays usually a rerun of some procedural crime show (CSI, Law and Order, Criminal Minds), Wednesday is Criminal Minds night (until Lost comes back), Thursday is The Office, and Friday we usually find something On Demand. 

We also enjoy some of the shows on the Food Network like Iron Chef, Chopped, etc., and I think it is because my wife and I both hate cooking but enjoy watching others do it, and wish they lived with us so we don't have to do any of the cooking. 

[Faust]

If there's something I am interested in watching, I'll download it but there hasn't been much in a while. I can't stand advertising and how it breaks up the shows. You really notice them when you haven't been exposed to them in a while.

That being said the smug sense of unwarranted self importance some people get from saying "I don't watch tv" has become so irritating that its almost embarrassing to say anything similar.

So fucking what?  I don't watch that fucking thing, and I'm not bothered to say so.  Does that make me smug?  If so, I don't give a fuck.

You don't make a holier then thou condescending point of it though, that's the difference.

[Faust]

If there's something I am interested in watching, I'll download it but there hasn't been much in a while. I can't stand advertising and how it breaks up the shows. You really notice them when you haven't been exposed to them in a while.

That being said the smug sense of unwarranted self importance some people get from saying "I don't watch tv" has become so irritating that its almost embarrassing to say anything similar.

I'm not a big fan of smug unwarranted self importance, but in the case of not watching TV I'll gladly make an exception and prefer if people around me didnt watch TV and were smug about it.

Except they aren't. A few of them don't watch but they arent being smug about it. Compared to a couple of years ago, I do get the impression that "funny/cool commercials" are less part of the discourse now than they were, for which I am grateful.

Speaking of smugness, there's some people that think they're pretty smart and decided they need TV to "keep up". And whenever some part of the news is being discussed and I ask them a question, "what exactly is X, who is Y, did he say why he said Z, etc", they are all like "see and that's why you should watch TV".
regardless of the fact that they don't really know what X is apart from a word they used on the news, Y is some unimportant tabloid "celebrity" and of course the news didn't cover the motivations behind statement Z and they surely never gave it a second thought (no really, why does Geert Wilders want to tax head scarfs?)

That's a kind of smugness that annoys me. I mean sure I understand why, of course it's tiring for them that when they talk about some dutch criminal kid that drugged and killed some blonde american girl on some far away island beach that really nobody would give a fuck about (except direct relations and authorities) if it weren't for the media beaming all that shit into the collective discourse, that they cannot start right away re-re-re-retelling the latest tidbit of information the media has fed them and happily speculating on whatever, but yes, no, you shall have to re-tell the last couple of chapters of the story to me, because, yes I know the story, but I haven't followed it that close, and oh yeah, we're both real people and when you sum it up like that you suddenly feel pretty stupid because normal people usually don't insult eachother's intelligence with empty stories like the TV does.

That said, the Internet also poses some problems for me. See I agree with JohnnyX that, from all the things you can do while "doing nothing", watching TV is probably the worst. I'm not sure about background, I know I couldn't stand it, but just giving that box 10-15 minutes of your attention puts you in a trance like, very toxic state.

But the Internet, it's different and it's the same. You have to actively choose what channels you want to watch, otherwise Squid would probably be all over Google Video, since it doesn't have good documentaries "some of the time", but really whenever you want one.

But the Internet, it's giving me information overload. Took me too long to realize it, but reading shit on the Internet is addictive as fuck, and if you don't control yourself you go on an information binge, lose a couple of hours and the worst part, see I gotta admit, watching TV is somewhat relaxing, even if you watch Fox News, after a while you get this trancelike state and your brain switches down a gear and relaxes. But not so on the Internet, my brain speeds up, and when finally after a few hours of guzzling information, I manage to pull myself loose from that sticky screen, sometimes I actually have to close my laptop screen to break the spell, it's really like a spell, also a trance, but a different one, because afterwards I feel all washed out, tired. That wasn't that way with the TV. You just watched and after a while you notice nothing's on and you get fed up with the crap and switch it off but at least your head is not spinning and you go do something else. Anyone else have this? I noticed some people talk about tvtropes in that way, but I also have it when reading up on this forum, how do you deal with it?

I guess I have the advantage that I'm not exposed to the people you are describing TVwise, I often get people at work trying to talk to me about shit from the tabloids but they have realized I don't really care about that stuff so they don't bother me with it as much any more. The smug attitude just vaguely irritates me.

The internet information overload is a problem I've worried about. I've been limiting my time on it because its easy to be distracted when doing other things. I have to turn it off at least an hour before bed or I won't get a proper nights sleep because I'm still in concentration mode.
And whenever I am writing anything I have to disconnect completely, otherwise its like a presence even if you aren't checking it.

[Messier Undertree]

I don't watch tv